The Mayor of London will today released 101 limited-edition yellow Boris bikes to mark the 100 days until the Tour de France comes to London. The bikes will be available until the Tour arrives on the 7th of July in London.

Findings over the effects of the London cycle-hire scheme have been "reassuring", according to a scientist from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who carried out a study to see the impact of Boris bikes. Dr Anna Goldman added:

When the cycle hire scheme was introduced, there were widespread concerns that increasing the number of inexperienced cyclists in central London would lead to higher injury rates.

Our findings are reassuring, as we found no evidence of this. On the contrary, our findings suggest that the scheme has benefited the health of Londoners and that cycle hire users are certainly not at higher risk than other cyclists.

London’s bicycle sharing system has more positive health impacts than negative effects, according to a new report. Research by the British Medical Journal revealed that Boris Bikes has had the greatest impact on older users.

Barclays Cycle Hire bikes popularly known as 'Boris Bikes' Credit: PA

Scientists balanced improvements to health from the physical activity of bike riding with the potentially harmful effects of physical injury and inhaling traffic fumes.

Between April 2011 and March 2012, 7.4 million cycle hire trips were made by 57,607 users.

The results of the computer modelling study found that the benefits far outweighed the harms, at least when looking at injury rates for people riding Boris bikes.